Fathers’ participation in early childhood education in New Zealand.

Fathers’ participation in Early Childhood Education (ECE) has been recognised to have a positive influence on young children’s and their families’ well-being. New Zealand’s education policy has promoted parental participation, and has called for supporting programmes of parental partnership by education service providers, including the ECE centres. Given the value of fathers’ participation in ECE, investigations into how this participation perceived by teachers and fathers themselves is important to identify any potential gaps between the views of ECE teachers and fathers. This thesis investigated fathers’ participation in ECE programmes in New Zealand. The perceptions of ECE teachers and fathers in ECE centres were probed in two separate studies in the thesis. Teachers and fathers were asked to complete questionnaires that recorded their perceptions on fathers’ participation and asked for their views on the potential factors that might either facilitate or hinder such participation. The Father Participation Questionnaire (FPQ) was developed specifically for this study, but was based on questionnaires reported in the research literature which have also considered parental participation in education. The reliability and validity of the FPQ were examined as part of the research and two forms of the questionnaire were produced. These were equivalent in terms of the questions asked and factors assessed, but were suitably modified to be relevant to ECE teachers and the fathers of ECE children. This allowed similarities and differences in perceptions across the two groups to be considered. In addition to determining the views of teachers and fathers, the research also examined the effectiveness of a father-focused intervention programme, which was developed primarily to enhance fathers’ participation in ECE centres. The programme focused on fathers reading with their child at the ECE centre and, therefore, also targeted emergent literacy skills. This provided an opportunity to observe the level and type of interactions between fathers, children and teachers within an educational focused activity. In the first study, 100 ECE teachers completed the teacher version of the FPQ, allowing the research to investigate these teachers’ perceptions related to the participation of fathers in ECE. The results demonstrated that while teachers acknowledge the fundamental role of fathers in their children’s educational development, many of the responses seem to suggest that more was needed to encourage fathers to take active roles in ECE centres. The second study explored the perceptions of 50 fathers whose children were enrolled in New Zealand ECE centres by utilizing the father version of the FPQ. Similar to the responses of ECE teachers, fathers acknowledged their fundamental role in their children’s educational development and care. However, clear differences emerged between teachers’ and fathers’ perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to fathers’ participation in ECE centres. The third study examined the influence of the father-focused intervention programme. Twelve fathers volunteered to work on emergent literacy skills with their own children in the centres. Fathers’ interactions within the ECE centres, as well as their reading behaviour and their children’s print knowledge, were tested before and after the intervention programme and contrasted across those who took part in the intervention and those who did not. The findings suggested that such a father-focused programme in ECE centres may improve fathers’ overall participation in ECE centres and contribute to enhanced literacy practices both by fathers and children. The data obtained argue for the continued need to develop awareness and resources, as well as good practice, in order to enhance fathers’ roles in their children’s educational development in ECE centres. The results are discussed within a parental partnership models and the practical implications of the findings are highlighted.